1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to integrated circuits and in particular a power management system for an integrated circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Integrated circuits utilize power for operation. With some integrated circuits, different circuit portions of the integrated circuit have different voltage requirements for operation. For example, different circuit portions of an integrated circuit may be powered at different voltage levels. With some of these integrated circuits, it may be desirable during operation to change the voltages of the power being supplied to each of the different circuit portions to increase the overall power efficiency of the integrated circuit and/or to decrease the thermal output of the integrated circuit.
With some systems, it may be desirable to reduce the difference between the voltage of the power supplied to the integrated circuit and the voltages supplied to the different circuit portions of the integrated circuit to increase the power efficiency of the integrated circuit. However, because the voltages supplied to the different circuit portions may be changed during operation, the voltage of the power supply to the integrated circuit has to be high enough to meet the maximum possible voltage supplied to any one of the different circuit portions. Accordingly, meeting this maximum voltage requirement may decrease the power efficiency of an integrated circuit.
What is desired is a power management system for an electronic system with an improved power efficiency.
The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates identical items unless otherwise noted.